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Aurora Milstein’s early memories of sewing aren’t exactly fond.
“My mom is an amazing seamstress and she taught me how to sew clothes for my Cabbage Patch Kids dolls when I was about six or seven. I hated it,” she says, noting that using traditional paper patterns and marking and pinning pieces of fabric felt too tedious. “If you told me then that one day I would have a business that involved so much sewing, I would’ve thought you were crazy.” But in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when face masks were scarce, Milstein set up her sewing machine again and began creating reversible masks with patterned fabrics cut from thrifted button-down shirts.
While shopping at Anthropologie one day, she spotted a white quilted coat with colorful flower-like patches (known to quilters as Dresden plates). “I thought, This is kind of the same fabric I’m using for the masks. I wonder if I could go home and make this coat,” Milstein says. Two weeks later, she had a handmade dupe of the Anthropologie coat, and this time, she actually enjoyed making it. “ I got to make whatever rules I wanted,” she says. “ I made my own pattern by tracing a sweater I already had in my closet and just figured everything out on my own.” Her preteen daughter convinced her to list the coat on Etsy and, to Milstein’s surprise, it sold within two weeks.
Five years later, Milstein says she’s made more than 500 quilted pieces of outerwear for her Etsy shop Quilts & Clogs, which she runs from her Castle Rock home. To sidestep the time-consuming quilting process, she repurposes blankets she finds at local thrift stores and antique malls into roomy cocoon coats, cropped moto jackets, and buttoned vests, all with a boho feel. With leftover fabric, Milstein creates smaller wearable pieces (think: belt bags and mittens) as well as quilted panels that she inserts into the legs of vintage Levi’s jeans for a wide leg, barrel leg, or flared silhouette.
A former Los Angeles–based actress—her IMDB credits include in Party Teen #1 in the movie Scream—Milstein showcases her ease in front of a camera by sharing video diary snippets of her sewing process, thrift hauls, and new releases on Instagram (@quiltsandclogs). Though the feedback she receives from her nearly 47,000 followers is largely complimentary, she gets the occasional negative comment. “Some people get really upset that I’m cutting these quilts up,” she says. “But I’m not taking your grandmother’s heirloom quilt off of your bed. I look at these ripped and stained unwanted quilts in the thrift stores and think, Come with me, old girl, I’m going to give you a second life. And now they can be appreciated by a whole new generation.”
In fact, Milstein’s 16-year-old daughter often borrows and wears Milstein’s quilted recreations, and even made her own by patching a New York Yankees logo that she cut from a thrifted quilt onto a lounge set. “That made me so proud that she’s seeing that you can experiment and make something your own,” Milstein says.
3 Crafty Holiday Gift Ideas from Quilts & Clogs
Vintage Quilt Belt Bag
“I just made a whole new batch of belt bags, which are perfect gifts because you know it’s going to fit the person you’re giving it to,” Milstein says. $95
Happy Flower Tote
”In Colorado you’re bringing your own shopping bags everywhere, so it’s nice to have an elevated tote to bring to the mall or the grocery store,” Milstein says. $58
Custom Order
“I love when somebody sends me a quilt that their grandmother made and asks me to transform it into a coat or a pair of jeans that they can wear around and show off,” Milstein says. Prices vary
